About the Journal

The Nano-Horizons journal is intended to be the voice of the African nano-community in this fast-rising multidisciplinary field at the interface of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Engineering, Materials science, Computation & modelling. The focus is the multidisciplinary field of Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies. The journal will consider publishing:
• Mini Reviews,
• Original contributions,
• Original Short Communications,
• Original Reports
• Express Letters

Publication model and frequency

The journal only publishes online.

Nano-Horizons publishes one issue per year. Individual submissions will be published as soon as the peer-review, copy-editing and production processes are finalised. Submissions to special issues will be grouped under the name of the issue.

Articles are published online as they are finalised. A DOI is immediately allocated. Articles retain their initial page numbering.

Peer Review Process

A double blind peer review process is followed.  A minimum of two peer reviewers, who are recognised specialists specific to the topic and area of the submissions, are appointed by the editors. All peer review reports are mailed to the contributors.

Competing Interests Policy and Procedure

As an academic journal publisher, we recognize the importance of managing potential competing interests in order to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity and transparency. We have established clear policies and procedures for handling potential competing interests among our authors, reviewers, and editorial team.

Policies:

  1. Disclosure: All authors are required to disclose any potential competing interests that may be relevant to their research, such as financial or personal relationships with organizations or individuals that may have an interest in the research. All reviewers are required to disclose any potential competing interests that may affect their ability to provide an impartial and objective evaluation of the manuscript.
  2. Evaluation: Our editorial team carefully reviews all disclosures of potential competing interests and assesses whether the competing interest is relevant to the manuscript. If a competing interest is deemed relevant, the editorial team will consider the potential impact of the competing interest on the manuscript and its publication.
  3. Recusal: In cases where a competing interest may affect the impartiality or credibility of the publication, the editorial team reserves the right to reject a manuscript or recuse a reviewer. Reviewers may also recuse themselves from the review process if they have a potential competing interest.

Procedures:

  1. Disclosure: Upon submission of a manuscript, all authors are required to complete a disclosure form that outlines any potential competing interests. Reviewers are also required to disclose any potential competing interests before accepting a review assignment.
  2. Evaluation: Our editorial team evaluates all disclosures of potential competing interests and determines whether the competing interest is relevant to the manuscript. If a competing interest is deemed relevant, the editorial team will consider the potential impact of the competing interest on the manuscript and its publication.
  3. Recusal: If a competing interest is deemed relevant and could potentially affect the impartiality or credibility of the publication, the editorial team will reject the manuscript or recuse the reviewer. Reviewers may also recuse themselves from the review process if they have a potential competing interest.
  4. Transparency: We believe in maintaining transparency throughout the publication process. All disclosures of potential competing interests will be made public upon publication of the manuscript.

By establishing these policies and procedures, we aim to ensure that potential competing interests are managed appropriately and that our publications maintain the highest standards of academic integrity and transparency.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Authors keep the copyright of their manuscripts under a Creative Commons licence: CC BY.

Data Policy

By publishing in the journal authors are required to provide a data availability statement in their articles. Authors are encouraged to share their data but not required to. The decision to publish will not be affected by whether or not authors share their research data.

Required

  • Data availability statements

Optional / Encouraged

  • Data citation
  • Data sharing via repositories for all research data

Definition of research data

This policy applies to the research data that would be required to verify the results of research reported in articles published in the journal. Research data include data produced by the authors (“primary data”) and data from other sources that are analysed by authors in their study (“secondary data”).

Research data includes any recorded factual material that are used to produce the results in digital and non-digital form. This includes tabular data, code, images, audio, documents, video, maps, raw and/or processed data.

Definition of exceptions

Research data that are not required to verify the results reported in articles are not covered by this policy.

This policy does not require public sharing of quantitative or qualitative data that could identify a research participant unless participants have consented to data release. The policy also does not require public sharing of other sensitive data, such as the locations of endangered species. Alternatives to public sharing of sensitive or personal data include:

  • Deposition of research data in controlled access repositories
  • Anonymisation or deidentification of data before public sharing
  • Only sharing metadata about the research data
  • Stating the procedures for accessing your research data in your article and managing data access requests from other researchers

Embargoes

Embargoes on data sharing are permitted.

Supplementary materials

Sharing research data as supplementary information files is discouraged.

Data repositories

The preferred mechanism for sharing research data is via data repositories. Please see  https://repositoryfinder.datacite.org/​ for help finding research data repositories.

Data citation

The journal encourages authors to cite any publicly available research data in their reference list. References to datasets (data citations) must include a persistent identifier (such as a DOI). Citations of datasets, when they appear in the reference list, should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite and follow journal style.

Data licensing

The journal encourages research data to be made available under open licences that permit reuse freely. The journal does not enforce particular licenses for research data, where research data are deposited in third party repositories. The publisher of the journal does not claim copyright in research data.

Researcher/ author support

Questions about complying with this policy should be sent to NH1@unisapressjournals.co.za

Data availability statements

The journal requires authors to include in any articles that report results derived from research data to include a Data availability statement. The provision of a Data availability statement will be verified as a condition of publication. Data availability statements should include information on where data supporting the results reported in the article can be found including, where applicable, hyperlinks to publicly archived datasets analysed or generated during the study. Where research data are not publicly available, this must be stated in the manuscript along with any conditions for accessing the data. Data Availability statements must take one of the following forms (or a combination of more than one if required for multiple types of research data):

  • The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available in the [NAME] repository, [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS]
  • The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current​ study are not publicly available due [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLIC] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
  • The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current​ study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
  • Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were​ generated or analysed during the current study.
  • All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this​  published article [and its supplementary information files].
  • The data that support the findings of this study are available from [third party name] but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of [third party name].

Fees

Nano-Horizons does not currently charge article publication charges (APC’s) or any page fees.  

Plagiarism

Manuscripts containing plagiarism will not be considered for publication in the journal. Plagiarism is defined as the use of another person's work, words or ideas without attribution or permission, and representation of them as one's own original work. Plagiarism may take many forms, ranging from major plagiarism (the copy-and-paste of large amounts of text), to minor plagiarism without dishonest intent (e.g. when an author uses parts of an introduction from an earlier paper) and even self-plagiarism (the re-use of significant, identical or near-identical portions of one's own work without citing the original version).

JLS subscribes to plagiarism detection software and all contributions submitted to the journal will be scanned to verify originality. Ithenticate (http://www.ithenticate.com/) is currently used.

If major plagiarism is brought to light after a manuscript has been published, the journal will proceed to conduct a preliminary investigation. The journal reserves the right to formally retract such manuscripts and publish statements to reference material as plagiarism.

All records are archived.

Authorship and AI Tools

Unisa Press adheres to the COPE Guidelines on Authorship and AI Tools which state that AI tools cannot meet the requirements for authorship as they cannot take responsibility for the submitted work. Authors are required to acknowledge the use of AI Tools in any aspect of the generation of their article.

Licensing and Publishing

In consideration for the publication of your article by Unisa Press, you hereby agree to grant to Unisa Press an irrevocable nonexclusive licence to publish in print and electronic format, and further sublicense the article, for the full legal term of copyright and any renewals thereof in all languages throughout the world in all formats, and through any medium of communication.

You shall retain the perpetual royalty-free right to reproduce and publish in print and electronic format, and further sublicense the article in all languages throughout the world in all formats, and through any medium of communication provided that you make reference to the first publication by the Journal and Unisa Press.

Author agreement

The author(s) agrees that the contribution is original work, was not published elsewhere, is not being considered for publication elsewhere, and will not be submitted for publication elsewhere unless it is rejected by Nano-Horizons or withdrawn by the author(s).

By submitting work for consideration to be published in Nano-Horizons, the author(s) agree(s) with all the policies of the journal. The attention of the author(s) is drawn in particular to the policies on copyright, licensing and publication.

Neither the editorial staff, the board nor the publisher accept responsibility for the opinions or viewpoints expressed, or for the correctness of facts and figures.

Copyright

Copyright remains with the author(s) of the article(s).

All articles published in Nano-Horizons can be re-used under the following licence: 

CC BY 4.0

Creative Commons By 4.0 International License.

Digital Preservation Policy

Nano-Horizons uses the PKP preservation network.

Language

The journal publishes in English.

Open access

Nano-Horizons is an Open Access journal, which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of Open Access.

Articles from this journal can be made available on personal websites and institutional repositories, subject to the following conditions:

1)            Always upload the final version as published at https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/NH/index

2)            Acknowledge the publisher.

Cite the article as part of the metadata and include the DOI as part of the citation to the article.

Disclaimer

UNISA and Unisa Press make every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the "Content") contained in our publications. However, UNISA and Unisa Press, our agents (including the editor, any member of the editorial team or editorial board, and any guest editors), and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by UNISA and Unisa Press. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. UNISA and Unisa Press shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to, or arising out of the use of the Content.